Annual report of the Medical Department / Colony of Singapore.

  • Singapore. Medical Department.
Date:
[1946]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Department / Colony of Singapore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/148 (page 4)
    PART II The War Period REPORT OF THE ACTING CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, Dr. H. SCRIMGEOUR, AN EX-INTERNEE 2—The Hospitals in War Time Prior to the outbreak of war with Japan in Malaya on 8th December, 1941, the General Hospital and Tan Took Seng Hospital were hospitals for acute cases and Kandang Kerbau Hospital was a maternity hospital. Plans had been made for converting all three for the reception of war casualties in the event of war. The Japanese opened their attack on Malaya with a bombing raid on Singapore in the early hours of 8th December, 1941, causing a large number of casualties amongst the civilian population. It was not until the end of December, 1941, that further bombing raids were made on Singapore, which continued with increasing frequency and intensity until the capitulation on 15th February, 1942. It was in January, 1942, that the hospitals began to be severely taxed with air-raid casualties and wounded from the fighting forces, and soon Raffles College, St. Andrew’s School and Outram Road School were opened as extra hospitals for wounded. In addition, the Medical Auxiliary Service had estab¬ lished depots where a small number of casualties could be housed, and aid-posts in many buildings throughout Singapore—schools, clubs and other suitable buildings being fully utilised for this purpose. As January progressed and the Japanese forces advanced down the peninsula, hospitals and aid-posts whose staffs had been augmented by medical officers, sisters, nurses, dressers and Medical Auxiliary Service personnel retiring from up-country were found to be working at high pressure. The Medical Auxiliary Service organisation had opened canteens in the hospitals and Medical Auxiliary Service depots, and the staffs of the canteens worked long and arduous hours providing light refreshments for staff, patients and refugees and, in the larger hospitals, cooking meals to help the kitchens. In the General Hospital some eight thousand persons, patients, staff and refugees, were fed daily. When the Japanese forces reached Johore Bahru, they began to shell Singapore and in February air-raids continued day and night. The continual bombing and shelling increased the stream of wounded pouring into aid-posts, depots and hospitals, and soon the hospitals were literally crammed with wounded, civilian and military. The General Hospital, with normal accom¬ modation for 830 patients, found itself at the end of the fighting with some 3,500, of whom 1,100 were service casualties and 2,400 civilian casualties. The Japanese forces landed on the island from the mainland on the morning of the 9th February; and from then onwards, as their pincers closed on the town, the work of the hospitals and aid-posts became progressively more difficult. The shelling and bombing and general turmoil of war taxed the morale of the staff to its utmost, and it can be safely stated that the personnel of the Medical Services came through this strange and terrifying ordeal with remarkable courage, calmness and devotion to duty.